


whack-a-mole

by singlemalter



Category: NCT (Band)
Genre: Communication Failure, M/M, Pining, Reality TV
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-05
Updated: 2021-01-05
Packaged: 2021-03-16 03:33:58
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,816
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28575327
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/singlemalter/pseuds/singlemalter
Summary: Jaemin is, unfortunately, the kind of hopeless romantic to fall in love while taking part in a TV show about trusting nobody.
Relationships: Lee Jeno/Na Jaemin
Comments: 2
Kudos: 24





	whack-a-mole

**Author's Note:**

  * For [p1erregasly](https://archiveofourown.org/users/p1erregasly/gifts).



> this is an extremely niche AU in which jeno/jaemin/some others take part in a (nonexistent) south korean version of [wie is de mol](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wie_is_de_Mol%3F_\(Dutch_TV_series\)). if you haven’t watched it just check out the wiki and it has a pretty good summary of how it works. if you HAVE watched it congrats on...... being in this very bizarre intersection....... all 5 of us...
> 
> for S. because of all the reasons you know; and because we’ve been friends for a year and best friends for the better part of that. thank you <3 this is no rob & nathan dynamic but it’s alright, i hope

Falling for another contestant in a game show about trusting nobody is maybe the stupidest thing Jaemin has ever done. 

He loves too hard, too fast. His Achilles heel, his bleeding heart is right on his sleeve, which is why everyone _knows_ he’s not the mole—if he were, someone would have caught him slipping by now.

He also happens to have a huge, embarrassing crush on the only person who still suspects him, most likely because he can’t act right around Jeno. Words are hard enough without the added pressure of impressing the hottest person alive.

* * *

_I’m Lee Jeno, twenty-one... what else—oh, I’m an online dance instructor and I study architecture. If I were the mole, I think I would prefer to act normal and be myself. I’m really quiet, so no one notices me in the background, planning..._

* * *

Today’s last assignment is a trust exercise of sorts—guiding your partner through a maze and helping them through Kyuhyun’s awful, borderline sadistic puzzles. Except Jeno assumes everything he says is a lie, fails to memorise the relevant parts of the Slovenian folk tale Jaemin tells him, and complains that he rambles too much, which Jaemin knows is true but still hates to hear. 

“I’m sorry, okay?” Jaemin concedes, too tired to argue. “I’m not good at staying on the subject, I know that. I tried my best to give you everything you needed.” 

“You’re an idiot,” says Jeno. He pauses and looks at Jaemin from head to toe, like he’s trying to find something but doesn’t quite know what it is. “But you’re a good guy, Jaem. We should work together. Like—like, just helping each other with information.” 

“A bond,” Jaemin says. “You want a bond? With me?” He _should_ be suspicious of Jeno’s willingness to work with someone he apparently hates, but then again, if Jeno thinks he’s the mole, he’s wasting time keeping tabs on a contestant. On the other hand, if he deliberately misleads Jeno and stays longer than him, he’s not sure he would survive the massive guilt. 

“Yeah.” Jeno shrugs. “We already survived the first couple episodes. I think we can be good for each other.”

_If only you knew,_ Jaemin thinks. “Okay, I’m in,” he says, and that’s that. 

* * *

_Hi! I’m Na Jaemin, but everyone calls me Nana. I’m twenty-one and I host a YouTube channel about my life in medical college. If I had to be the mole... I think I’d try to befriend everyone and just be nice. How would someone this cute do anything bad?_

* * *

The thing is—

Jaemin’s notebook isn’t very proportional when it comes to facts about his fellow contestants. He has three whole pages for Taeyong, who he doubts the most, and one for everyone else, besides daily notes about the assignments. 

He doesn’t have any notes on Jeno. 

All of it is in the back of his mind, a dossier of sorts. When the group suggests beef tongue and oysters for dinner, he pipes up before Jeno does: _Ah, but Jeno doesn’t like oysters, right?_ When he sees a cute souvenir, he gets it gift wrapped for Jeno. Maybe it’s too much, but it’s how he works—he loves both small and grandiose gestures, loves to make people smile, loves to be loved.

In return, Jeno eats the strawberry off his fruit salad and invites him to bike on a nearby trail before breakfast, and Jaemin knows he’s very, very far gone.

* * *

_I think... I’m going to play the game on my own. That’s how I usually work? I’m not—not very good at getting close to people, and a bond sounds too risky. Sometimes people take advantage of me, because they think... they think I’m nice so—so they can do whatever they want. But I don’t know! Anything could happen._

* * *

“Jaemin,” Kyuhyun announces. His tone is flat as always, but he looks almost happy. 

“That’s me,” he says nervously. Someone giggles behind him. 

“You look nervous,” says Kyuhyun. He slowly, _slowly_ types Jaemin’s name into the laptop. He raises his finger, hovering over the _enter_ button, and—

A green screen pops up.

He turns to Jeno and grins, speechless. He generally tries not to celebrate too much—it feels wrong to be so joyful when someone’s about to leave—but he did it. He’s staying for another episode. 

“Congratulations.” Kyuhyun gestures to his right. “Jeno.”

Jaemin puts a hand on Jeno’s thigh, his thumb rubbing circles below the hem of his shorts. “You’re gonna be fine,” he whispers, because he _knows_ it’s true. 

They watch Kyuhyun do his awful routine of writing Jeno’s name and staring him down before—

Green. It’s _green_. They’re staying together for one more week. 

Jeno _leaps_ to his side, wrapping his arms around Jaemin. “Thank you,” he whispers, just loud enough for Jaemin to hear. “You’re the best.”

In the end, Taeyong leaves, and Jaemin loses his mind. Half of his questions were on Taeyong, with two or three others as a backup. He’d been so close to going all-in on Taeyong that the elimination leaves a sour taste in his mouth; he needs to step up or go home.

* * *

_I have to really trust someone to have a bond with them. I mean, I’m good at making friends, but trusting someone in a game like this is hard. I don’t know! Nana can charm everyone, but it’s hard to convince me to trust you. I guess that’s why I will do so well in the game, hm?_

* * *

They reach the final together, at which point Jaemin sits down and cries for ten minutes in the bathroom. He’s torn between laughing about his naïveté—how did he take Jeno’s words at face value for so long?—and crying because this stupid game has gotten to him, somehow. 

It’s just a TV show, yet he feels kind of betrayed. A reel of Jeno’s weird behaviour plays over and over in his head, reminding him of every bizarre moment he brushed off as just Jeno being Jeno. If he lost this game over _love_ —God, his mum would never let him live it down. 

He washes his face, tells his mirror-self to stop being such a baby, then goes back to their celebratory dinner with puffy eyes and a devil-may-care attitude.

“Are you alright?” Haechan asks. He’s holding a glass of wine like it’s a teacup. 

He doesn’t really want to give Haechan an honest answer—Haechan is nice, but other than being the third finalist and occasionally singing in the van, Jaemin knows very little about him. ”Never been better,” he says, if only for the benefit of the cameramen behind him. He hates knowing his mum will see his blotchy face in full HD, broadcast live to all of Korea and some more. 

Jeno glances at him. Besides some words about Mark-the-underground-rapper being eliminated, they haven’t talked since Kyuhyun’s announcement, and Jaemin wants to keep it that way. He needs to process his own emotions beforehand; that’s how he avoids saying things he doesn’t mean. 

* * *

Looking at Kyuhyun and waiting for the last time has Jaemin’s stomach in knots, more out of preemptive nostalgia than out of anxiety. He’s relatively confident in his answers, even if he’s determined to grill an explanation out of Jeno after this is all over. 

“So, candidates! You’ve survived,” Kyuhyun starts. He gestures to the park stretching out behind him, to the salt mines and the birds pecking at the crystal clear water. “Slovenia has treated you well. Even though it was unknown to all of you, you endured, some better than others. You’ve been through a lot, and this is the final stand, so to speak. Enough of that, though, I’m sure you want to know your fates!

“Jaemin, you are not the winner.”

His heart sinks. He wants to turn to Haechan and ask _how_ , but they’ve been strictly advised to keep a straight face during this part. His mind races with a billion possibilities, each one more absurd than the last, and the blood roaring in his ears _almost_ drowns out everything around him. 

“Haechan, you are not the runner-up,” Kyuhyun continues.

Jaemin wants to scream. There’s no way he didn’t win—he knew the answers to all forty questions. More than that, he knew _Jeno_ like the back of his own hand. How could Haechan possibly—

“And Jeno, you are not the mole.”

_Oh, shit_ , Jaemin thinks. 

* * *

_I’m Haechan, I host a radio show called, you guessed it, 37.5MHz Haechan Radio! What would I do if I were the mole? I don’t know, but I would definitely not act like I do in real life. I think people think I’m not smart or that I can’t be sneaky just because I am really extroverted, and that’s not true. Everyone would be really surprised if it turned out to be me, that’s for sure._

* * *

The first thing Jaemin says to Jeno at the post-show interview table: “I am so stupid.”

“I—I mean, me too, I realised I spent so long with you I didn’t pick up on everything Haechan did and I was so scared I’d lose by _one question_ or something—”

Jaemin buries his face in his hands. “I was on you,” he mumbles. He wishes he could jump into a hole on the floor and disappear forever. God, he’d been so dramatic over _nothing_.

“Wha... _what_?” Jeno sputters. He bursts into giggles, eyes creasing into pretty half-moons. “You can’t be serious—Jaem! I told you a million times it wasn’t me!”

“And I was just supposed to believe you?” Jaemin asks. He pouts and squirms away from the cameras, too embarrassed that _this whole audience_ witnessed his little breakdown after assuming Jeno was the mole. “I’m sorry, it just made too much sense! You’re so awkward and everything that wasn’t about _carrying weights_ or _running_ ended in disaster—”

“I’m just bad at figuring things out under pressure,” Jeno says, still laughing. “I’m sorry! I promise I wasn’t trying to take money out of the pot. I really meant it when I said I trusted you a hundred percent.”

Jaemin hums. “Right,” he says, crossing his arms. “You’re going to have to prove that to me afterwards.”

“Take him out for some drinks with all that prize cash, Jeno,” Haechan pipes up. “You owe him that.”

Jeno purses his lips, pretending to be deep in thought. “Maybe I will,” he says and smiles at Jaemin. “Maybe I will.”

* * *

(Jeno does take him out for drinks, later, away from Kyuhyun’s teasing remarks and everyone else’s eyes. He only needs two cocktails to lean in and smooch Jeno’s cheek like a shy schoolgirl, and three more to kiss him for real.

Jaemin refuses to put out on the first date, though—he’s still reeling the time Jeno traded one of his jokers for _nothing_.)


End file.
